My parents were devout Roman Catholics and practiced their faith daily. My mother, like most of her family were particularly devout and lived her religion as best she could 17 miles from the nearest church with daily Mass.

We residents of Westminster are lucky to have our church so close to our homes. Imagine the adventure of a mid-winter trip across the prairie to an early morning Mass.

Bendon was a small village with a Catholic Church (Holy Trinity), rectory, dance hall, general store, saloon, and post office. The village was named after J.L. Benda after whom the post office was first named.

Holy Trinity Church at Bendon was built 1894 and a rectory was built in 1899 at Bendon in order to attract a Czech priest. St. Margaret’s Catholic Church, a really grand church for the area in my estimation, was built in Kimball in 1895, 14 miles northeast of Bendon. St. Margaret’s served several nationalities unlike Holy Trinity that served a Czech congregation for the most part with services in Latin and Bohemian. The Konechnes were participants in the building of Holy Trinity

Another page describes the congregation, and the Bendon equivalent to coffee and donuts after Mass:

Most of the people who settled in this area were Bohemian and they formed the Bohemian Western Catholic Union. John [Konechne] and his sons helped to build their beloved Holy Trinity Church at the village of Bendon. Fred Shereda was the master carpenter who directed the building. He also directed the building of St. Precopious Church at Red Lake. The church was completed in 1893 and it was here that the family spent Sundays. First Mass, then a potluck dinner, then the ladies to the Benda’s general store, the men to Stan Zingler’s saloon. In the afternoon a ball game in the pasture to the east. Three characteristics dominant in the Bohemian people were their love of music, love of art, and their strong faith.

Brule County is in the Diocese of Rapid City. The church at Bendon doesn’t show up in the diocesan list of parishes. It isn’t affiliated with the Brule County towns of Chamberlain, Kimball, or Pukwana. It appears that the only Holy Trinity in the Diocese is now in Huron. Holy Trinity in Bendon is just off I-90 near Kimball, and seems to be used now as a museum. The Holy Trinity Cemetery in Bendon seems to be the only active part of the old parish.

Please Pray for Us

The Renovation Committee of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Westminster, Colorado has been charged with wisely applying a generous donation to the remodeling of our church building. We had hoped to complete this project by the 50th anniversary of our building's dedication in November 2009, but we are now praying for completion by early May 2010.

How to help:

+ Please pray for us

+ Send us your images of the church (pictures of baptisms and weddings)